83 : A movie review, reliving Prudential Cup almost 40 years later

1983 Prudential Cup is my cup of frisson on demand. I just have to glance at the pictures of a grinning Kapil Dev holding the '83 world cricket cup or people overrunning the stadium at Lords to get auto-response goosebumps. As a grade schooler, I had my own scrapbook filled with newspaper cuttings of India's first ever win of a world cup of any sort.

Whether India likes it or not, English and Cricket are the two lasting colonial legacies the British left the Indians with, in return for Kohinoor and centuries of continuous looting of India's resources and treasures. Both English (the language) and cricket have stood India in good stead, have been important catalysts helping to grow the Indian economy and establishing India on the global scene. The British East India company is the reason why this blog is in English. My love for cricket is the reason for this post.

Living  deep in no-Indian (East Indian, not native American) country, I was waiting for a streaming service to release 83, Kabir Khan's retelling of India's 1983 Prudential Cup journey. Finally it aired on Netflix last week. The best part about 83 is the effort the director and his team have put in getting the details right. The players, their playing styles and mannerisms, the events and situations they find themselves in have all been depicted as close to reality as possible. I know, because they are in my newspaper clippings scrapbook :-)

Another redeeming point for the director is he succeeded in capturing the swagger and the intimidating presence that was the West Indies team of the late 70s and 80s. 

Considering the kind of attention to detail given to the style and stance of the individual Indian players and the cool West Indians, I have tried to overlook the cringe inducing jingoistic or sentimental elements that a Bollywood movie cannot do without, which 83 couldn't get rid off completely either. A fictional ceasefire at the farthest outpost in the Himalayas on the day of the finals! I am just glad that we narrowly escaped suffering a patriotic song sung by soldiers in sub-zero temperatures. It didn't do well at the box office despite critics (and I) loving it. Maybe the current audience, mainly millennials and younger, could not relate to it? 

The actors, including Pankaj Tripathi as the team's manager have given great performances. Kapil's Devils as the Indian team was called back then, are represented in the movie by Saqib Saleem playing Mohinder Amarnath , Tahir Raj Bhasin as Sunil Gavaskar, Jatin Sarna as Yashpal Sharma,  K. Srikant  played by Jiiva, Sandip Patil played by his own son Chirag Patil, Nishant Dahiya as Roger Binny and others. The greatest discovery for me though, is Ranveer Singh, who essays the role of the captain Kapil Dev Nikhanj.

Ranveer Singh, with his penchant for outrageous outfits, has the persona befitting an offspring of a peacock and an eccentric fashion designer if such a coupling could have happened.  I had never really given him much thought as an actor. In fact when they announced casting Ranveer Singh as Kapil Dev, instead of say someone like Randeep Hooda who is from the same area in India as Kapil Dev and is a sportsman in addition to being an actor, as a fan of Kapil Dev I was disappointed. 

Ranveer Singh as Kapil Dev

Then I saw Ranveer Singh in 83 as Kapil Dev.  The entire production team and the actor himself have gone into so much detail getting into the skin of real Kapil Dev, that the audience is unable to see Ranveer Singh anymore. That's when I realized that Ranveer Singh has been proving me wrong with his every recent outing - whether it is Gully Boy or Padmavat or 83, the guy can act. At this point I would rate him as one of the best amongst the current bunch of younger Bollywood actors. 

83 is not Chak De India, which is probably the best Bollywood sports movie in my book. But it is history. Kabir Khan's 83, while it could have been better, has done a decent job depicting a momentous turning point in India's cultural history.

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New York

New York is a sauve film, just like its actors. Editing and photography befits the fast pace of the city it is named after. Technically it is more in league with Hollywood movies than with its Bollywood counterparts, all credit to Kabir Khan, its director.

I had watched Kabir Khan's previous venture Kabul Express. Like New York the story deals with the a situation which is the aftermath of 9/11. What doesn't really click for me with Khan's movies is that somehow they fail to keep me glued to story. I am not able to point out anything obviously lacking with the script or the story. But despite the gorgeous heroes, breath-taking locales, slick editing and fabulous photography, something is incomplete?!


Anyway New York shows me that when John Abraham grieves or sheds one or more tears, he looks like a man who had a stroke run over by a train. Katrina Kaif is a good-fit for the American desi, with an accent to match. But the discovery of the movie is Neil Nitin Mukesh - that guy can really act! He doesn't have many films in his resume and despite his caucasian good looks(fair n lovely crazed indians will lap him up like no tomorrow) he might be Bollywood's character actor of the future.

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Kabul Express

Directed by Kabir Khan, Kabul Express takes us on a roadtrip with five travellers across the barren landscape of post-Taliban Afganistan. The Taliban has just been ousted and the country is in shambles. Two Indian journalists, played by John Abraham and Arshad Warsi reach Afganistan to cover the events following Taliban's exit and American occupation. They run in to an American journalist, played by Linda Arsenio. They have an Afgani driver-guide, who is the fourth main character. Salman Shahid, a Pakistani actor portrays an ex-Tliban with Pakistani military roots.

It is hard to believe that the film came out from Bollywood, from Yashraj Films, it has a dry subject matter befitting the times and people it portray but very much unlike what is the typical Bollywood fare. For me it was totally unbelievable that the people who brought Dilwaale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, the mushiest Bollywood romantic hit of all time has tried their hands at an almost documentary like feature film.

The only glitches, minor though, are - Abraham and Warsi looked too polished for journalists in a war zone. The script, thought I do not exactly pinpoint what it is, lacked a certain something. All in all it is a quite different movie to come out of Bollywood lately

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